The Chinese language is like no other on the globe; it is said to
contain not more than about three hundred and thirty words, but it is by
no means monotonous, for it has four accents; the even, the raised, the
lessened, and the returning, which multiply every word into four; as
difficult, says Mr. Astle, for an European to understand, as it is for a
Chinese to comprehend the six pronunciations of the French E. In fact,
they can so diversify their monosyllabic words by the different _tones_
which they give them, that the same character differently accented
signifies sometimes ten or more different things.
P. Bourgeois, one of the missionaries, attempted, after ten months'
residence at Pekin, to preach in the Chinese language. These are the
words of the good father: "God knows how much this first Chinese sermon
cost me! I can assure you this language resembles no other. The same
word has never but one termination; and then adieu to all that in our
declensions distinguishes the gender, and the number of things we would
speak: adieu, in the verbs, to all which might explain the active
person, how and in what time it acts, if it acts alone or with others:
in a word, with the Chinese, the same word is substantive, adjective,
verb, singular, plural, masculine, feminine, &c. It is the person who
hears who must arrange the circumstances, and guess them. Add to all
this, that all the words of this language are reduced to three hundred
and a few more; that they are pronounced in so many different ways, that
they signify eighty thousand different things, which are expressed by as
many different characters. This is not all: the arrangement of all these
monosyllables appears to be under no general rule; so that to know the
language after having learnt the words, we must learn every particular
phrase: the least inversion would make you unintelligible to three parts
of the Chinese.
"I will give you an example of their words. They told me _chou_
signifies a _book_: so that I thought whenever the word _chou_ was
pronounced, a _book_ was the subject. Not at all! _Chou_, the next time
I heard it, I found signified a _tree_. Now I was to recollect; _chou_
was a _book_ or a _tree_. But this amounted to nothing; _chou_, I found,
expressed also _great heats_; _chou_ is to _relate_; _chou_ is the
_Aurora_; _chou_ means to be _accustomed_; _chou_ expresses the _loss of
a wager_, &c. I should not finish, were I to attempt to give you all its
significations.
"Notwithstanding these singular difficulties, could one but find a help
in the perusal of their books, I should not complain. But this is
impossible! Their language is quite different from that of simple
conversation. What will ever be an insurmountable difficulty to every
European is the pronunciation; every word may be pronounced in five
different tones, yet every tone is not so distinct that an unpractised
ear can easily distinguish it. These monosyllables fly with amazing
rapidity; then they are continually disguised by elisions, which
sometimes hardly leave anything of two monosyllables. From an aspirated
tone you must pass immediately to an even one; from a whistling note to
an inward one: sometimes your voice must proceed from the palate;
sometimes it must be guttural, and almost always nasal. I recited my
sermon at least fifty times to my servant before I spoke it in public;
and yet I am told, though he continually corrected me, that of the ten
parts of the sermon (as the Chinese express themselves), they hardly
understood three. Fortunately the Chinese are wonderfully patient; and
they are astonished that any ignorant stranger should be able to learn
two words of their language."
It has been said that "Satires are often composed in China, which, if
you attend to the _characters_, their import is pure and sublime; but if
you regard the _tone_ only, they contain a meaning ludicrous or obscene.
In the Chinese _one word_ sometimes corresponds to three or four
thousand characters; a property quite opposite to that of our language,
in which _myriads_ of different _words_ are expressed by the _same
letters_."